Banning ultra-processed food is not a nanny-state issue. It’s common sense

‘Ultra-processing – making food last longer or feeding a craving for more – clearly raises the risk of chronic illness.’ Photograph: Katrina Wittkamp/Getty Images

In April 1994, the CEOs of the US’s seven biggest tobacco companies swore on oath before a Senate committee that nicotine was “not addictive”. At the time it was estimated that 3,000 American children were being induced by said companies to start smoking every day.

Last Monday, the BBC’s Panorama programme came close to repeating that scene with Britain’s food manufacturers. The products at issue are ultra-processed foods (UPF). Their makers’ denial of the harm these products may cause is as adamant as those tobacco execs’ once was, and the consequences could be equally lethal.